Meeting friends this summer was one of the highpoints of this vacation. This is something I had not at all anticipated when I first made the plans. Oh my! I had the most amazing time *yes we know, haven’t we heard this word enough already?* with each one of them.

So here is a post dedicated to just meeting friends this summer vacation *This one just can’t stop bragging about her friends!*.

So here is who I met…

Like I have already mentioned in the earlier post, this trip turned out to be everything and a tad more than I had hoped for it to be . While I would love to take all the credit for this amazing experience I had , I’ll have to share some of it with my friends 😂.

When I put it out there to everyone concerned *or not * “I’ll be home this summer, let’s plan to meet”, they made the effort and took the time to make it happen.

Anvita

Where do I begin? *Oh please do begin from the very beginning because we just have nothing better to do than hear all about it🙄! Wait a sec don’t we ? like seriously?!*.

I met Anvita after 3 years! You know how she and I literally talk over the phone every single day and yet, seeing her in person was just something else!! Who would have thought I would tear up seeing her *our thoughts exactly who would have thought? hmm.. no one 😆!*

You know the best part of all this *Do we have a say here? Like maybe we don’t really care about the best part? * ? V and N dote on Anvita, perhaps because they have a blast of time with her most every time she has visited us in the past!

When they learned about our plans of spending an entire day with her this vacation, the girls were just beyond excited. Despite it not being peak office hour it took us an hour and a bit to reach her place, *and there she goes about the traffic again! In all this she had to bring up the traffic! Bengaluru people take a note, she’s moaning a bit too much about your city!! Just saying*

This being our first week in India we were still battling jet lag, add to that V’s motion sickness, the drive wasn’t as pleasant as one had hoped. However, traffic aside, we had the most *oh don’t say that word again! Come on don’t say it* amazing time *and she said it, AGAIN!! Someone throw a dictionary 📔her way , NOW!! *

And because we couldn’t have enough of her and they had her promise that she would visit us before we leave for Seattle. And well of course she did!

Rohini

After meeting Anvita and just before we left for Mahabalipuram, I met Rohini and for the first time in 10 years that we have known each other it was just us adults * And who took care of your girls? 🙄 *

I met Rohini in 2012 when I was out on a evening stroll with little V. She was a new mom and so was I. Our connection was instant and effortless *Obviously they had a lot in common to grumble and moan about😜* . Since then whenever I am in country, all I have to do is inform her and she always makes the time to meet me 💕.

Here’s a interesting fact, Rohini loves her plants, like she reads plants, talk plants and is a cacti aficionado . Recently she started posting about them in her absolutely amazing Instagram account @curated_by_rohini on everything cacti 🌵. If you love your cactus and need help , look no further.

It was Rohini who first introduced me to my first ever plant! That was back in 2015 and now you’ll find a plant in most every corner of my house 😂.

Anshuman and Bandi

After Mahabalipuram, it was time to meet the boys! Ok, this was the most exciting meeting of all of them.

While meeting Anvita got me teary eyed , meeting these two gentlemen left me speechless * Why don’t we believe that? * ! Well that’s not true 😂, maybe for a couple of seconds but then I was so excited to meet them that I perhaps may have chatted my way all through that evening !

Anshuman and I have met a couple of times in the past when I was living in Bengaluru and that was like a decade ago and Bandi? I think we last met in 2004, almost 18 years ago! .

Before that evening we weren’t quite in touch so when when we finally met, I braced myself for a moment of awkwardness. To my surprise *Not to ours, we know you a little better now. I think it will take a lot more for you to shut up * we were all at ease in each other’s company

The moment we saw each other we were back to being those kids *I am not sure you can call a 18-19 year old a kid, just saying!* who had met in their first year of engineering!

We spent the entire evening reminiscing about our days from college and just enjoying a quite moment without children and spouses 😜 *told you, she was having fun without the kids!* .

Remember this post Happy National Youth Day? You’ll find a mention of them there. I’ll save some stories from the past for a later post!

Suman

You surely remember Suman from My Tribe *Yes of course, do you want to test our memory on everything that you share on this blog!🤷‍♀️ * Yes, the same one!! Well she was in India too this summer vacation. And boy what a blast the three of us had for the next few days.

While Renuka, Suman and I live in North America, our reunion has always happened in Belgaum so far. *the proud Kannadigas girls huh ?* .To sum up my time with her in Belgaum this vacation , I just am going to say it again “we had a blast”!

Jayant

And we come finally to Jayant! Ok, the credit for us meeting this time solely goes to him. He made this happen and I am soo glad he did!

He and I go all the way back to year of 2009. The year of 2009 was a game changer for me in many ways *and yet again she will share all the mundane details but when it comes to important details she’ll just leave just with the words Game Changer!!*.

There are many big small things that happened that and the preceding year that shaped me into who I am today. It’s during that time of big changes that I met Liz, Jayant & Gautam. They made HP bearable and fun while S was out doing his MBA.

I remember a few defining episodes that sealed the deal for me with each of them ! Some of them are beyond hilarious *and we will not be made privy to it I suppose? Thank you for leaving us hanging. *! My initial days of blogging are filled with stories of these folks!

The last time I was in India in 2019, I was annoyed and disappointed with Jayant for not making the time to meet me despite having known my plans for months. *And now we know why all of them met her this time! Boy the pressure she puts on her friends! Who does she think she is Queen Elizabeth? Oh wait! RIP Queen.*

But this time he made up for it and how? Peace offering came with a bribe – delicious macaroons and well who could say no to that?!

Liz couldn’t make it this summer from London but here is hoping she and I’ll meet soon 🙂.

And that brings to the end up this post *a long winding post indeed!*. Well almost, I forgot to mention this time I also caught up my college girlfriends 18 years later. *ok, lady we got it. You met folks after folks from your glorious days in college. Can you be done already?!*

This is a picture from our last year in engineering college and we are just few weeks away from stepping in to the real world with that degree in our hands! Don’t we all look adorable in this pic? *It’s not how do you like the pic? I mean she’s just fishing for compliments. I say let’s be blunt and just tell her the truth. But that would make us look like the bad ones! See , what she did here?! She just put us in a spot! Well OK you look Adorable. Happy ?! 😏*

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Ok, I am finally done! I wonder me meeting these folks, connecting with them and finally coming here and talking about it had anything to do with me turning 40 ? Honestly, I made a honest sincere attempt to meet and connect with most everyone in town, I can’t say I did this in my previous trips.

I have to get going, it almost time to pick up the girls from school. Have a great rest of your day. Happy reading.

 “A journey is best measured in friends rather than miles.” – Tim Cahill